Flag football device



May 30, 1961 w. P. ABBOTT ET AL 2, 86,396

FLAG FOOTBALL DEVICE Filed Oct. 10, 1958 I Illlsl llll;

INVENTORQ WILL/AM R ABBOTT APT/W2 #52726526 @A ATTORNEY United StatesPatent FLAG FOOTBALL DEVICE William P. Abbott, Pasadena, and ArthurHertzberg, Pacific Palisades, Calif., assignors to W. J. Voit RubberCompany, Los Angeles, Calif., a corporation of California Filed Oct. 10,1958, Ser. No. 766,509

3 Claims. (Cl. 273-55) This invention relates to flag football devices.Flag football is a game in which players have a flag attached to thebelt of one player and he is pursued by' another player or players, whotry to snatch and detach the flag from the player having it and then runto the goal with such flag for making touchdown.

It is an object of this invention to provide a flag football deviceattachable to the waistline of a player and having one or moredetachable flags, or streamers, said devices being made of athermoplastic material, such as polyvinyl chloride, and having asuitable thermoplastic snap for attaching a flag either to a vinyl beltor a vinyl belt strip, which is attached to a conventional belt bythreading the conventional belt through the strip.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a vinyl belt with one flag being attached tothe belt;

Figs. 2 and 3 are sectional views of the snaps used with the belt ofFig. 1;

Figs. 4A and 4B show the male and female portions, respectively, ofanother version of a vinyl snap suitable for use with the beltillustrated in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 5 illustrates an alternative form of belt arrangement.

Referring to Fig. 1, it illustrates a belt made of a vinyl ribbon stockwith a buckle 11 made of polystyrene or any other material, such asaluminum or stainless steel. The ribbon 10 is attached to the buckle bythreading it through the openings 12 and 13 in the buckle and wrappingit around the center piece 14 of the buckle. The end of the ribbon 10 isthen fused to the ribbon by heating the adjoining portions of ribbon 10with a high frequency current, while the end of the ribbon is pressedagainst the ribbon. This fusing is indicated by a depressed circle 15 onthe belt. The belt is also provided with two vinyl snaps of the typeillustrated in Figs. 2 through 4b. The plan view of the female portionof the snap is illustrated at 16 in Fig. l and a sectional view is shownat 200 in Fig. 2. The female portion of the snap includes a flange 201,an outside wall portion 202, an inside wall portion 203 provided with aridge 204 and a beveled portion 205. The female portion 200, or the maleportion 300 of the snap is connected to belt 10 by pressing flange 201or flange 301 against the belt and then high frequency heating thejoint. The adjoining surfaces become permanently fused together and onehalf of the snap becomes very securely attached to belt 10. In similarmanner the other portion of the snap is fused to a flag 17 which is alsomade of a vinyl sheet stock and may have some suitable design on itssurface and color for distinguishing the players or the teamsparticipating in the play.

The male portion of the snap is shown in Fig. 3. It also includes aflange 301, a plug portion 302 with a ridge 303 and a truncated coneportion 304. The plug is held in an expanded position by a dome-shapedportion 305, which acts as a spring when the plug is inserted into theother half 200 of the snap. When this is done, the two ridges 204 and303 interlock and hold the snap and the 2 flag in a very good positiveengagement requiring considerable force for its detachment from thebelt. Any desired number of flags may be attached to the belt, the usualnumber being two or three flags.

The snap used for attaching the flag to the belt can take a variety offorms, and such additional version is illustrated in Figs. 4a and 4b.The plug 400 includes a flange 401, a stem 402 and a ridge 403. Thecomplementary member 410 includes a flange 405, a cone shaped portion406 and a neck 407 provided with an opening 408 to receive stem 402 withridge 403 engaging a shoulder 409 provided in member 410. The twoflanges are thermoplastically welded to the belt and the flag,respectively, as

503 for threading a conventional belt through the slits and thusattaching strip 501 to the belt and to the player. The advantage of thisdevice resides in the fact that it is less expensive than the belt ofFig. l and enables one to shift the flag along the belt by sliding strip501 along the belt.

The advantages of the disclosed flag belt devices reside in the factthat they are inexpensive to manufacture, are made of thermoplasticmaterial which is pliable and soft to touch, thus preventing anyinjuries to the players; the flags and the belts take on very brightcolors for identifying the players or the teams participating in theplay; the vinyl plastics withstand very well exposure to various weatherconditions; and the thermoplastic snaps and the belt itself, or thestrip 501, are not subject to any deterioration due to rest, which wouldbe the case if they were made of inexpensive metal; all parts keep theirshape well indefinitely, and the design features of the snaps can beproduced quite readily since the plastic nature of the materialpermits-the use of relatively large tolerances among the interlockingparts, such as ridges 204, 303 and 403; if such parts were made ofmetal, these snaps would be rendered completely inoperative; the use ofwide flanges distributes the stresses over a wide area and, therefore,the local unit stress is never too high to produce ruptures; the snapsfunction well and in positive manner, and can be engaged very readily byinexperienced hands of children.

In claiming the invention, reference will be made to a thermoplasticstrip. This term will include strip 10 in Fig. 1 and strip 501 in Fig.5.

What is claimed as new is:

l. A device for playing the game of flag football com prising anelongated belt of thermoplastic material adapted to be securely attachedat the belt-line of a wearer, said belt having a plurality of fasteningelements thereon spaced from one another in the direction of elongationof said belt and adapted to individually receive and to individuallydetachably hold a plur-ahity of elongated flexible streamer-like flagsindividually depending and streaming from said belt in substantiallyparallel relation to one another, each of said individual streamer-likeflags comprising an elongated ribbon-like strip of thermoplasticmaterial removably attached to said belt and adapted to be detachedindividually from said belt, during playing of said game of flagfootball, by forces insuflicient to detach said belt from said wearer,each of said fastening elements consisting of one-half of a snapfastener comprising separable complementary male and female fastenerportions, said snap fastener male and female portions each beingconstructed substantially entirely of a thermoplastic material, saidone-half thermoplastic fastener portions being fused in said spacedrelation to an outwardly facing surface of said thermoplastic belt, theother halves of said separable thermoplastic fastener portions beingrespectively fused to surfaces of said thermoplastic ribbon-like stripslocated respectively adjacent an end of each said streamer-like flag,whereby the major portion of each said flag is adapted to dependindividually downwardly and stream outwardly from said belt infree-hanging indi vidually detachable relation to said belt.

2. A device for playing the game of flag. football comprising a firstelongated relatively narrow strip of thermoplastic material adapted tobe securely attached at the beltline of a wearer, a second elongatedrelatively narrow ribbon-like strip of thermoplastic material acting asa streamer adapted to be removably attached to said first strip fordetachment therefrom during the playing of said game of flag football, asnap fastener comprising separable complementary male and femalefastener portions, each of said fastener portions being constructedsubstantially entirely of a thermoplastic material and each of saidfastener portions including an outstanding flange of said thermoplasticmaterial, one of said fastener portions havits flange fused to anoutwardly facing portion of said first thermoplastic strip, positionedat the rear belt-line of said wearer, when said first strip is attachedto the beltline of said wearer, the other of said fastener portionshaving its flange fused to a surface of said second thermoplastic stripfacing inwardly when said other fastener portion is snapped intoengagement with said one fastener portion to removably attach said firstand second thermoplastic strips to one another, said other fastenerportion being located closely adjacent one end of said second stripwhereby said second strip is adapted to depend downwardly and streamoutwardly from and below a limited portion of said first strip and saidsnap fastener in freehanging removable relation to said first stripthereby to permit said free-hanging streamer to be grasped and forceably detached from said first strip by forces insufficient to detachsaid first strip from sail belt-line or to rupture the fused junctionsbetween said snap fastener portions and strips, said female snapfastener portion comprising first and second hollow thermoplasticcylinders of differing diameters disposed one within the other in spacedsubstantially coaxial relation, the inner one of said cylinders havingan inwardly projecting ridge of plastic material, the upper ends of saidcylinders being integrally joined by an inclined thermoplastic wallforming a funnel shaped entry to said inner one of said thermoplasticcylinders, the lower end of the outer one of said cylinders having anintegral thermoplastic annulus outstanding therefrom to define saidflange for said female snap fastener portion, said male snap fastenerportion comprising a substantially cylindrical plug of thermoplasticmaterial having its said flange integral therewith and outstanding fromone end thereof, said plug being sized to fit within the inner one ofsaid cylinders and including an outwardly projecting ridge adapted tointerlock with said inwardly projecting ridge of said inner cylinder.

3. A device for playing the game of flag football comprising a firstelongated relatively narrow strip of thermoplastic material adapted tobe securely attached at the belt-line of a wearer, a second elongatedrelatively narrow ribbon like strip of thermoplastic material acting asa streamer adapted to be removably attached to said first strip fordetachment therefrom during the playing of said game of flag football, asnap fastener comprising separable complementary male and femalefastener portions, each of said fastener portions being constructedsubstantially entirely of a thermoplastic material and each of saidfastener portions including an outstanding flange of said thermoplasticmaterial, one of said fastener portions having its flange fused to anoutwardly facing portion of said first thermoplastic strip, positionedat the rear beltline of said wearer, when said first strip is attachedto the belt-line of said wearer, the other of said fastener portionshaving its flange fused to a surface of said second thermoplastic stripfacing inwardly when said other fastener portion is snapped intoengagement with said one fastener portion to removably attach said firstand second thermoplastic strips to one another, said other fastenerportion being located closely adjacent one end of said second stripwhereby said second strip is adapted to depend downwardly and streamoutwardly from and below a limited portion of said first strip and saidsnap fastener in free-hanging removable relation to said first stripthereby to permit said free-hanging streamer to be grasped and forceablydetached from said first strip by forces insufficient to detach saidfirst strip from said beltline or to rupture the fused junctions betweensaid snap fastener portions and strips, said snap fastener being adaptedto space said first and second strips from one another, said female snapfastener portion comprising a hollow truncated conical thermoplasticmember having an appreciable height, the larger end of said truncatedconical member being open and having said flange for said femalefastener portion integral therewith and outstanding therefrom, thesmaller end of said truncated conical member also being open, anelongated hollow cylinder of thermoplastic material integral with saidtruncated conical thermoplastic member at said smaller end thereofwhereby said female snap fastener portion has a significant heightcorresponding to the combined lengths of said truncated conical memberand elongated hollow cylinder, said male snap fastener comprising a plugof thermoplastic material adapted to be inserted into and having alength substantially equal to said elongated hollow cylinder.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D.155,723 Mattison Oct. 25, 1949 699,339 McDonald May 6, 1902 924,011Sprague June 8, 1909 1,310,119 Harper July 15, 1919 2,846,224 RoselleAug S, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 621,404 Great Britain Apr. 8, 1949

